Wonderful facet of our own Jewish Community locally and nationally. What is the jews of Color Field Building Initiative . Thanks for inviting us into the conversation. The jews of Color Field Building Initiative, weve been around 19 months and have three areas of focus. First we run the nations only Philanthropic Fund focused specifically on jews of color. We are interested in funding leadership development, grass roots networking, cohort building, Research Building and knowledge making, developing kind of new ideas and concepts in organizations and Leadership Initiatives for the Jewish Community, all centered around jews of color, advocating for jews of color, helping the Jewish Community understand itself as a multi racial Jewish Community. That is our first area of focus is our fund. The second thing we have the privilege of doing is conducting Jewish Community ecosystem. Io in the last 18 months we conducted a study counting inconsistencies with stanford university. It was a demographic analysis of jews of color in the United States. I hope we talk about that. The third thing we do is education in the community. It is such a privilege. We work with fellowships, leadership teams, boards, sort of influencers in the ecosystem with this idea of helping understand that the Jewish Community is not all white. Its not all askanazie and in the United States we are a multi Racial Community becoming more multi racial. How do we educate our leaders around what we need to understand about demographics, Planning Forward in the community, and what the Jewish Community is and who we are now in the u. S. And moving forward who we are going to be. Thank you. You used an inside word some people wouldnt know. That is a hebrew yiddish word that refers specifically to jews of Eastern European origin and would you say in the context of the United States jews who are white . It is an interesting question. Right . Yes, that is the origin of the word. We also use a term which suggests the u. S. Jewish community largely expresses itself with ashkenazi culture. On the one hand we might think that flags or signals white but on the other hand you think about all the jewish families in the u. S. Where you have one white parent and one parent of color and the white parent might be ashkenazi so their kids are both jewish people of color with ashkenazi culture and ethnicity. It is not exclusively white but often codes for white in the u. S. Given what weve projected as jewish in the United States. So i think you are touching on something that is so important which is we all know race is so complex. Right. So complex in a north american and really United States context. Yeah. So when we talk about Something Like ashkenormative already that says there is a way in which we subtly aspire to something or something is declared as main stream and so i wonder if you can talk within a jewish context about i know it is a complex question but what does it mean then in our own context to assimilate to something that is perceived as normative and not completely normative and a jewish person of color isnt just a person of a particular skin color who happens to want to assimilate into an ashkenazinormative life. There is a lot of complexity to that but i imagine the Initiative Works very seriously with that kind of issue. Lets unpack it a little bit. Yeah. Largely when jews came to the United States say like the second wave of jews in the 1800s into the 1900s and then into the 20th century, the first wave of jews that came to the United States were often german jews and often moving toward something but not necessarily fleeing their european background and environment. As we look at sort of the what we consider the largest wave of European Jews that come to the u. S. They were Eastern European jews in the 20th century and fleeing being marnginalized and oppressed in their own countries and that whole group came to the United States at a time when the u. S. Did not identify them as white. It is very important when we talk about the complexity of race, the u. S. Is obsessed with race and weve strat fied our nation based on race, from dark to light skin tone, from, you know, white as a normative and Everything Else in some way is not normal in the u. S. When Eastern European jews came to the United States they were not classified as white. They were classified as other. And over time, because of u. S. Politics around race, Eastern European jews had the opportunity to assume some privileges that come with whiteness. Those were things like tools for upper mobility like access to college education, access to home loans, access to bank loans, access to homes in the suburbs. But before that moment, for the most part, jews were assimilating into the u. S. Because of running from antisemitism. And so in some ways assimilation was a way to protect ourselves from being targeted as jews and then over time the u. S. Racial politics invited folks from eastern europe, greece, armenia, turkey, italy, ireland to sort of fade into whiteness while the u. S. Community further separated itself from blackness. Fascinating. Well continue this conversation but we need to take a quick break here on mosaic. Good morning. Welcome back to mosaic. Im honored to be your host and in the middle of a wonderful conversation with the executive director of the jews of Color Field Building Initiative. Welcome back. Thank you. We were talking a lot about the complexity of race and jews of color in the Jewish Community and that whole big landscape and so im wondering if we think about it i guess as a tactic, why choose philanthropy and the initiative as a Philanthropic Fund to in some ways articulate a vision and hopefully form change . What a great question. When we think about the pathways to, like, leadership in a national, communal ecosystem, think about the pathways to being able to create programs, be able to match policies with the people were trying to serve, there has to be some organizational vehicle to make all of that happen. And in our national ecosystem, like many other major sort of fields and ecosystems, one of the vehicles is philanthropy, which is giving communal resources to leaders, programs, to different vehicles to create change and create programs, policies, organizations, that support the work of the field. In this case, there are almost no communal leadership pathways focused on jews of color. There are two fellowships in the whole National Region that focus on jews of color. Every other fellowship in the Jewish Communal space has either no jews of color in them or maybe like one and a cohort or a class. There has been almost no communal philanthropic giving to jews of color in the history of Jewish Communal philanthropy in the u. S. There have been dribs and drabs but no focused effort and no real resources expressed in that area. So if you think about some of our communal foundations, some of the colleagues we work with, their foundations resources enable them to give away for example 2 million a week. In that context, we need to make sure that some of the resources for our Jewish Communal ecosystem programs and field are going to jews of color until our fund opened up there was no focused effort to bring funds to jews of color. What a wonderful way to match amazing people, amazing leaders, amazing programs with the resources to not only help them build out those ideas, help support that work, but then to knit together these leaders, these programs, and these experiences to create a field for the Jewish Community in the u. S. That is fascinating. So philanthropy is such a complex topic. And, certainly, when we talk about any group of people that is other the rise in the society especially in the Capitalistic Society is economic. Right. And so use of philanthropy within a Jewish Values context of righteousness, giving and giving back, has a very strong force. Yeah. For how we as jews make ourselves capable in a society. I am wondering if you know of any way in which that example has been followed by other faith communities where there are folks of color if the catholic church, in the muslim world, the buddhist world, etcetera, and are there ways in which this example has been followed in any way for those other particular communities of color . Im not aware of any specific examples but ill respond with two brief points. One is that some of what were learning at the jews of Color Field Building Initiative how to conduct our philanthropy is informed by outside of the jewish world. We work with networks of color in philanthropy to inform some of our practices and approaches. Part of what is going on is we are learning from outside the jewish space from our colleagues of color out there. That is really important. Then when i think about sort of par laying that into the faith world, i was working with some of our muslim colleagues and we had this conversation and they said, we need a version of this for the muslim community. And so, you know, any community in the u. S. That is a Faith Based Community that has multi racial dynamics at play, it needs the attention of navigating its own race and racism issues because the u. S. Creates race and racism issues. This is not something to be blamed for but every faith group in the u. S. Is multi racial and every faith group that is multi racial is affected by and informed by racism. So, yeah. Thank you so much. Well continue this conversation in just a moment here on mosaic. Welcome back to mosaic. Im honored to be your host. We are in the middle of a wonderful conversation with the executive director of jews of Color Field Building Initiative. Welcome back. Thank you. So i am wondering if we can talk a little bit about on a more personal or individual level what is the spiritual jewish drive for us commonly to make jews of color and really all of us spiritually nourished in our own jewish communities among ourselves . A beautiful question. I will maybe respond with a very brief personal story which is that being in the Jewish Community and being involved in ou jewishifend gate p ws of col so far awa fros the t sal spiritual nourishment. I had a conversation with a rabbinical colleague where a racist thing had happened. I knew this colleague was a wonderful colleague. She was unaware of the situation that happened. I said to myself, im going to make sure i talk with her before yom kippur so she had ace opportunity to reflect on this and we had an opportunity to come back in relationship around this raisins dce incident that happened. I said to the rabbi if it had not been for the tool of reflecting and preparing for yom kippur i wouldnt have been able to come back to you and have this conversation. It occurred to me how important it was for me to be in relationship with my spiritual pathway and tools to stay in relationship, to navigate a moment that was awkward and clunky and felt not great around racism and help both of us grow because we are in community together. Access to jewish Spiritual Life means we get to be in community and when we have hard times we have the tools to grow or grieve or reflect and what does it mean in a u. S. Context that quite frankly is so marred by negative t tifty and negative tivty and identity and conflicts out in the land . This is an even more important time for jews in general to be connected to spiritual tools and pathways. And what a shame if racism keeps jews of color away from the Jewish Community and from our spiritual tools and pathways. You remind me that every Faith Community essentially rests on a Theological Foundation. Thats right. Whether somebody is a faith adherent as a, in quotes, believer or secular. Thats right. In a jewish context it occurs to me we have this notion that everybody is created uniquely in gods image. We say in hebrew right. So for myself, it seems to me if that is true, then it must be that our diversity is a testament to gods unfathomable creativity. Yes. And so i just wonder if part of our inside work is that in a, lets say, an odd way thats kind of a clumsy word to use, but in an odd y, our theology has been ashkenanormative and part of the work of our Faith Community and others might say differently depending on their elvess a diversity of stand our gods creativity and then, of course, gods not white. Right. Gods not a lot of things. Thats right. We think of god as inefable anyway. Thats right. I dont know what your reflection is on this but it seems to me all of these things about what it is to belong and feel welcome has a lot to do with how we actually understand what our core Theological Foundation really is and maybe that is where the repair is i think that is totally right on and i would just add, im unable to sort of access the hebrew phrase right now. When we walk into synagogues we are reminded that we never know before whom we stand. Yes. If we understood ourselves as diverse, if we understood ourselves as multifaceted and multi dimensional, it would remind us that each time we see somebody our charge is to not size them up and make sense of them and try to figure out what kind of jewish they are or whose parent is jewish in that context or are they really jewish if they dont look familiar to me, the invitation is to remember that god is in every one of us and we are each a reflection of that. And so, you know, the dimensions are as diverse as we are. The facets are as diverse as we are. We must never forget we dont know who is in front of us so we ought to be careful. We ought to be loving. We ought to be kind. Maybe racism is a civic wound that theology heals. It is a civic wound that theology heals and somehow we also need to access the tools of being in connection to bridge that gap. Yes, absolutely. Gosh, well come back to this wonderful conversation in just a moment. Good morning and welcome back to mosaic. Wed like to welcome back our guest the executive director of the jews of Color Field Building Initiative. Welcome back. Thank you, rabbi. Weve talked so much about the work of the initiative and its vision and philosophy. Lets just go over the numbers. Okay. What are we talking about . So in the United States, you know, according to the data and research, there are about 7. 2 million jews in the u. S. And that number comprises both adults and young people ages 18 and under. Of that number, our study tells us that at a minimum 12 to 15 of that number are jewish people of color. So at a very minimum in the United States, 1 million of our 7 million jews are people of color. So just to put that in a jewish context, when youre opening your eyes, at least one people of every minion should be a person of color. Let me add that over time in the u. S. Like the general population of the United States, every next generation of jews born here in the United States is going to be increasingly people of color. So more and more each generation of jews in the u. S. Will be people of color. Our community is becoming more and more people of color. Just Like National data, while the timing is not the same, the data tells us that some day u. S be people of color. This is not just a theoretical intellectual opportunity to grapple with racial diversity and racism. The u. S. Jewish community is multi racial and it is going to become more racially diverse. We want to make sure our community is connected and strong and thriving in its own diversity in the Jewish Community. Fascinating. The hebrew word for praying and for quorum of ten folks coming together to form a prayer group for a formal prayer. Are most of our jews of color in our jewish urban environments . Good question. We looked at 15 National Studies and another five studies that talked about and looked at the Jewish Community from other angles. What we can tell you is there is a majority of jews in general and so therefore jewish people of color on the coasts and major metropolitan areas but our research and relationships and grant making tell me we fund jews in omaha, nebraska, austin, texas, raleigh, north carolina, in seattle, in wisconsin, in cleveland, and so there are pockets of jews of color where there are people of color in the u. S. Because the other thing is racism makes people move to environments that are more hospitable and diverse. So everywhere you see people of color, communities in the u. S. , you see jews of color. Everywhere you see jews in the u. S. You see jews of color. We are both sort of over represented on the coasts but, also, in some ways like there are really robust populations in those same communities that provided hospitality and safety for people of color when theyve been leading communities all over the u. S. Historically. So in the Jewish Community itself you know we have an ongoing conversation about who is a jew and how does somebody say theyre jewish whether they have converted to judaism, born jewish, or in a jewish family. I am wondering from the jews of color perspective does it encompass what we might think of as main stream jewish understanding of, like, youre in a jewish family if you are intermarried, how does that work from the jews of color perspective . Yeah. I think it works the same way for the sort of general Jewish Community. You have families that are interfaith. You have families that may have adopted somebody. You have families where they might be jewish adjacent. You have families that might be generationally jewish over time. Each one of these different expressions of a jewish family include people of color. So we have families in the u. S. Who are people of color, african american, mono racial meaning both parents are african american. And their judaism goes back generation after generation after generation in the u. S. We have some families where they became a jew by choice in the last year, three years, five years and are living a focused, observant jewish life. Then you have some families just like the rest of the Jewish Community who identify strongly as jewish and do nothing religious, nothing in their Spiritual Life but for their jewish identity it might be cultural, it might be based on different kinds of practices that might fall out of, you know, what somebody might view as like a very religious life and still theyre jewish. So the same way we see people come into jewish life across the Jewish Community in different ways we see that mirrored among jewish people of color with the one little thumb tack i want to put in there is when jews of color or Jewish Communal spaces, because people challenge our judaism based on our identity or how they perceive ow identities very often jews of color know a tremendous amount of torah and text and tend to be very learned. Jews of color tend to be very observant in some cases, and very, very committed and focused to the Jewish Community in ways we dont see with the general Jewish Community. Fascinating. We have come to the end of our time together. I want to ask a big question in a moment which is where do you want us to be in ten years . Yeah, i mean, where i want us to be is i want us to comfortably understand ourselves as multi racial. I want us to comfortably embrace the idea that when we look in a jewish space we should be seeing people of color. I want us to be not only comfortable with i want us to be authentically part of a dynamic where we understand race is complicated. We understand racism is real. We understand in the u. S. And in general, our Jewish Community intact and together and really, really committed to enabling every jew to have access to torah. I want to see that as who we are. Thank you so much for being with us here on mosaic. Please continue this conversation in the community. Have a wonderful day. Live from from cbs bay area studios, this is kpix 5 news. Right now on kpix 5 and cbs news bay area, one man is dead in livermore. One man was shot in a traffic stop and the gunman is still on the loose. We have some news. And aan